Tiger Shroff – “Living off my father’s riches is embarrassing.”

‘Like father, like son’ is an adage that just doesn’t hold true for Jackie Shroff and Tiger Shroff.

If Shroff Senior is characteristically ‘bindaas’, Shroff Junior. is very shy. If Senior peppers his conversations with ‘bhidu’, Junior remains formal right through our tete-a-tete.

If Senior remembers sleeping through the release period of Hero, Junior is having sleepless nights city-hopping to promote Heropanti.

Tiger Shroff is very much his own person. And this independent streak has helped him in his debut film Heropanti. As a star son of course, Tiger was already well-to-do when he entered the film industry but he says he has been able to plays a simple middle-class boy onscreen because: “I have lived a life away from my parents’ stardom. It’s thanks to my parents; who have kept me grounded all through. Of course, they give me a luxurious life but I chose not to take advantage of it. I don’t like living off my father’s riches, it is embarrassing.”

Besides being happy for his son, Jackie has not exerted much influence on his son’s career. The newcomer states: “My father is not at all involved in my career. Even my mother never knew what I was doing. Till date, whenever we are together, we talk about food and family; we don’t talk about films at all. Even when I was shooting for Heropanti, my father never came to the sets on a single day. He had so much trust in Sajid (Nadiadwala) and Sabbir (Khan) that he knew they would only want the best for me. Moreover, he knows that I am a hard worker.”

It was Tiger who took the call to get started on a film without taking any tips from his star dad, despite the latter’s three-decade long experience. Tiger says: “My father never wanted me to become a hero. He knew that there are huge expectations from a star-son. He didn’t want me to go through that tension. This industry was an alien place for me since I have lived a rather protected life. But eventually I nosedived into it. I had to become a total ‘besharam’.”

Part of Tiger’s reluctance to involve his parents in his career is because he is fiercely protective of them. He declares: “I don’t care what people say about me but I can’t tolerate anyone badmouthing my parents. My dad has earned so much respect over the decades; I don’t want any be-izzati for him or my mother.”